Police Officers Arresting People At Elephant And Castle Station

Police officers have been seen stopping a group of young men at the exit of Elephant and Castle station.

When we asked about what was happening they answered that there was nothing to worry about, that they were just here in order to control if every person coming out from the tube station had a travel pass.

A policewoman told us, ‘There is nothing special happening, we are just here to check security and fraud. We are randomly stopping people to make sure they have a travel pass.‘

It has been reported that lots of people are using public transports without paying – mainly homeless people and gangs who are taking advantage of the ticket fraud – so the police have to do occasional checks to be sure that everybody is in good standing.

In effect, ticket fraud costs London Underground millions of pounds each year, that is why the police are vigilant about that.

When going on Transport For London website there is a page about the penalty fares, where it is said ‘If you don’t have a valid ticket or you don’t touch in if using pay as you go, you may be charged a penalty fare or we may prosecute you.‘ It shows that the government takes the issue of ticket fraud very seriously and means are put in place to regulate that.